Anxiety is an annoying little bitch

Typically, I sleep like a log, but from time to time my stress levels increase and then BAM, I'm up all night anxious, with my mind at full speed, and a pit in my stomach over some worries. Usually, it's a slow acquisition of stressors (family, work) or just things that in general bother me (animal abuse, mean people who murder, etc.)  That was me last night, couldn't sleep, couldn't get comfy, couldn't shut off my head.

And you know what the biggest anxious stressor of all was?  Sleep--or the lack of.

We're taught that we NEED sleep, we NEED 7 1/2 hours/night OR you are subject to a plethora of  health issues including but not limited to: obesity, memory loss, low immunity, increased stress, heart attacks, strokes, not to mention the magazines tell you that you will look fucking ugly without it. So, the general population, on top of having real stress is now stressed about not being able to sleep...and when you start to stress about not sleeping, guess what? You don't fall asleep.  Motherf'er! Anxiety is an annoying little bitch who likes to steal everyone's sleep, life, man, whatever.

When these episodes hit, I typically journal some happy stuff, or stressors that are bothering me along with some solutions, read a stupid mindless book, and recite mantras like "I accept my current situation" and "I'll be okay no matter how much rest I get" and "The point is to relax, not to sleep" to keep me from getting annoyed/frustrated/further stressed.  If I fall asleep, great...if I don't, then I have to accept that too.  The next day, though, I'm always slightly worried that I'll have the same trouble again.  MORE anxiety. I journal, refocus my thoughts on happy things only, read, think mantra, and try to live in the "now."Eventually, I get back on track--and so will you.

I share this with you b/c I've talked to many people who are embarrassed about their sleeping/anxiety issues--it's so ridiculously common. The number of people with sleeping issues/stress/anxiety are high, in the tens of millions. You're not alone. And chances are, when you're up at night, stressing over the day, worried b/c you can't sleep, there are about 45 million other people out there with you (hell, I might be one of them).  You'll be okay no matter what.  I made it through basically a 6 month period of little to no sleep due to stress/anxiety over sleeping so I promise you that you can overcome it. It was tough, but I learned a lot about tools that work for me to control my anxiety (creating mantras you believe in, acceptance, journaling, breathing in and out...etc.)

What do you do to relax at night?